Jormungandr
Jormungandr is the final boss of Etrian Odyssey Nexus. Story After Lemuria grew its own Yggdrasil to avert the calamity, it flourished greatly. However, due to it being a safe haven in the midst of the calamity, thousands of people from the wasted lands surrounding Lemuria flocked to it. Lemuria couldn't sustain the influx of refugees, especially those coming from the Seafarers. The king of Lemuria then decided to stop accepting refugees, which the Seafarers took as a declaration of war. To defend themselves, the Leumrians created a weapon to repel invading forces. This was known as Jormungandr. Jormungandr performed well as a deterrent as attacks from outsiders eventually ceased. In this time of peace, though, Jormungandr became restless, looking for an adversary to face it. Its destructive urges began to affect everything outside Lemuria, slaughtering whoever sought to stand in its way, including the Seafarers and even the refugees within Lemuria. Eventually, the royal family decided to seal the monster away to maintain the peace it had brought about. As Jormungandr could not harm anyone of Lemuria, Princess Lemuria sacrificed herself to seal the serpent underground, beneath the Yggdrasil. Years later, Princess Persephone called adventurers from all across the world to explore Lemuria and recover the treasures found within the Yggdrasil. This also included Princess Enrica and the Seafarers. In bringing outsiders to the area, her actions unwittingly set the stage for its unsealing. Amidst the exploration and the clashing between the Seafarers and Maginia, two adventurers - a pair of twins both named Blót - pulled the strings on both sides of the conflict, eventually creating the opportunity to kidnap Persephone to use her to lift the seal. Despite his defeat at the end of the Northern Shrine, Blót was successful in unsealing Jormungandr with only a sample of the princess's blood. Persephone, having broken out of Blót's control, resolves to seal away Jormungandr like her predecessor did, and heads into the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. Mueller is dejected at the Princess's decision and begins to make arrangements to return the adventurers home. However, through discussion with all the allies the player has met thus far, it is eventually revealed that Jormungandr, still weak from its sealing, can be defeated before it reverts to its full strength. This would avert the need for Persephone's sacrifice. He then issues the final mission to defeat Jormungandr. Postgame At the depths of the Abyssal Shrine, the party finds the Hero Blót, who had managed to survive Jormungandr's strike. As he laments the death of Jormungandr, the mysterious voice that had been accompanying the party thus far chimes in, explaining that Jormungandr has infinite regenerative abilities which make it essentially immortal. However, the Yggdrasil Fruit can counter these abilities, only if Jormungandr is slain again and the Fruit used on its corpse. This Fruit can only be obtained from the Abyssal Princess, who was the very same Princess Lemuria who gave her life to seal Jormungandr away. Jormungandr may be unable to physically harm the Princess, but was capable of slowly warping her mind to its will, keeping her body preserved all this time. The Yggdrasil Girl encourages the party to defeat the Abyssal Princess, lay Princess Lemuria to rest, and take the Fruit to ensure Jormungandr's end once and for all. As Jormungandr dies, the Yggdrasil Girl prompts the party, and they toss the Fruit at its dying corpse. Dazzling light bursts from its writhing body, and soon the lifeless Jormungandr has become one with the Yggdrasil, new buds sprouting from the corpse of the former living weapon. After reloading the game, Jormungandr now respawns every time the player enters B5F of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. On B4F of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, just south of the stairs leading into the final floor, there is a stake that formerly couldn't be interacted with. Pushing that stake in will let the player fight the weakened Jormungandr, while pulling it out will let them fight Jormungandr at its full strength. Strategy Weakened Jormungandr = Despite it being in its weak, incomplete form, Jormungandr is still a force to be reckoned with. Ensure your party is around level 90 and well-fitted with the best equipment you can find for the best chance of survival. The sheer power of Jormungandr's attacks will definitely warrant many defensive measures. Bring defensive buffs and offensive debuffs to put its damage at survivable levels. A Protector's elemental Wall skills or Zodiac's Prophecy skills will prove very helpful against its own elemental attacks - negating or absorbing them will neutralize the debuff and disables they cause. Guard Rush or Full Guard is also useful in defending against Pentacle Strike. It's possible to land a leg bind on Jormungandr to prevent it from using Pentacle Strike. If this happens, it will be stuck showing its tail and will be completely helpless as it tries and fails to attack. Conversely, this also means that it will unleash a Pentacle Strike sooner or later, so while it's a great time to wail on the helpless Jormungandr, don't forget to take the opportunity prepare for impact. Phase 1 (100-80% HP) Jormungandr starts with the following pattern: #Quaking Thunder #Megalodive #Normal attack #Hateful Glare, shows tail #Pentacle Strike #(Unable to move) #Quaking Thunder/Megalodive #Megalodive/Quaking Thunder/Normal attack #Return to step 4. Immediately after it uses Hateful Glare, which inflicts a recovery debuff and has a chance to petrify, it thrashes about and shows its tail. When it does this, Jormungandr is telegraphing Pentacle Strike, which is a powerful move that can easily level the party unless everyone involved is defending. After it uses Pentacle Strike, though, its weakness leaves it incapacitated for a turn, giving you a reprieve to recover and go back on the offensive. At step 7, it chooses its move at random, and then at step 8 it uses the skill it didn't use the previous turn. Very rarely it will use a normal attack instead of any of its skills. It changes phase past certain HP thresholds, but it will only change its behaviour after it has used Pentacle Strike. Phase 2 (80-50% HP) #(Unable to move) #Clean Sweep #Quaking Thunder #Hateful Glare, shows tail #Pentacle Strike #(Unable to move) #Clean Sweep/Quaking Thunder/Megalodive #Quaking Thunder/Clean Sweep/Megalodive #Return to step 4. Once it enters this phase it opens with Clean Sweep after it recovers from its inability to move, and follows with Quaking Thunder. At step 7, it chooses its move randomly. Step 8 has it cast Quaking Thunder if it used a physical move previously, or a physical move if Quaking Thunder was used. Phase 3 (50-30% HP) #(Unable to move) #Power Press #Clean Sweep/Megalodive #Hateful Glare/Megalodive, shows tail #Pentacle Strike #(Unable to move) #Quaking Thunder/Power Press/Clean Sweep/Megalodive #Power Press/Clean Sweep/Megalodive/Quaking Thunder #Return to step 4. Power Press is a strong party-wide attack that can paralyze its targets. Past this point, it's also not guaranteed to use Hateful Glare every 4 turns, and may rarely use Megalodive instead. Its move of choice on step 7 is randomly chosen again, and the move on step 8 depends on what it used previously. *If it previously used Quaking Thunder, it follows with Power Press. *If it previously used Power Press, it follows with Clean Sweep or Megalodive. *If it previously used Clean Sweep or Megalodive, it will follow with Quaking Thunder. Final Phase (<30% HP) #(Unable to move) #Sealing Flame #Clean Sweep/Megalodive #Hateful Glare/Sealing Flame/Clean Sweep/Megalodive, shows tail #Pentacle Strike #(Unable to move) #Sealing Flame/Power Press/Quaking Thunder #Clean Sweep/Megalodive/Quaking Thunder/Power Press #Return to step 4. Sealing Flame is a move that hits 4-6 times randomly, binding random body parts and potentially causing a great loss in offensive momentum. Fire Prophecy is your best bet at countering it, but be aware that it has a speed bonus that can cause it to launch before the Prophecy is set. Again, it chooses its move randomly on step 7, and step 8's move depends on what was used previously. *If it used Sealing Flame previously, it will use Clean Sweep or Megalodive. *If it used Power Press previously, it follows with Quaking Thunder. *If it used Quaking Thunder previously, it will follow with Power Press. Step 4 now has Jormungandr randomly pick from its lesser physical skills. If it has not used Sealing Flame that loop, it now can rarely use it on step 4, which can present a problem if it binds party members critical for defending against Pentacle Strike. |-| True Jormungandr = Jormungandr at its full strength doesn't gain any new skills, but does have its stats dramatically inflated, requiring nothing short of your best to take it down for good. Several of its skills have been considerably strengthened as well. The offense debuff on Quaking Thunder is much stronger at a 95% penalty, and the healing debuff off Hateful Glare has an equally strong modifier - these buffs must be avoided where necessary. The action speed on Sealing Flame and Megalodive has become incredibly fast, capable of outspeeding Fire Prophecy and certain defensive skills which lack priority. This time, if Jormungandr's legs are bound while it shows its tail, the leg bind will last for one round at most as Jormungandr will immediately heal it off at the end of the turn. Disabling Pentacle Strike this way is thus a lot less effective. Phase 1 (100-50% HP) #Quaking Thunder #Normal attack #Quaking Thunder/Megalodive/Normal attack #Hateful Glare, shows tail #Pentacle Strike #Clean Sweep #Quaking Thunder #Megalodive/Clean Sweep #Hateful Glare, shows tail #Pentacle Strike #Quaking Thunder/Clean Sweep/Megalodive #Clean Sweep/Megalodive/Quaking Thunder #Quaking Thunder/Clean Sweep/Megalodive #Return to step 9. Its chosen move at turn 3 is chosen at random, with the normal attack coming up very rarely. Once it's used Clean Sweep for the first time, its behaviour changes a little. Its physical skill chosen on step 8 is chosen at random. Once it begins its AI loop proper from step 11, it chooses its move randomly, but will always alternate Quaking Thunder with a physical move. Phase 2 (50-30% HP) After finishing Pentacle Strike, it begins the next few turns like this: #Power Press #Clean Sweep/Megalodive #Quaking Thunder #Hateful Glare/Quaking Thunder, shows tail #Pentacle Strike On step 4, it is no longer guaranteed to use Hateful Glare, and may use Quaking Thunder. However, this is the point where Jormungandr begins reading the player's inputs. If it detects the player's thrown up Volt Wall or Volt Prophecy to negate Quaking Thunder at any point in the pattern, it will instead use Power Press. Prepare a physical defense with this to mitigate the strength of Power Press. A head or leg bind can also negate one of two skills without tripping this behaviour. After this first loop, subsequent loops proceed like this: Again, on any Quaking Thunder turns, it will interrupt and switch to Power Press behaviour for that turn if it detects an attempt to negate Quaking Thunder. It always follows Power Press with Clean Sweep or Megalodive, but another attempt to negate a volt attack can cause it to use Power Press twice in a row. Phase 3 (<30% HP) #Sealing Flame #Megalodive/Clean Sweep #Quaking Thunder #Hateful Glare/Megalodive/Clean Sweep, shows tail #Pentacle Strike Here, the AI begins reading for fire protection on top of volt protection on Quaking Thunder turns. On top of checking for Volt Wall or Volt Prophecy, it also checks for Fire Wall or Element Shield. If only volt protection is detected, it will fire Sealing Flame instead of Quaking Thunder. If it detects both fire and volt protection, or all-round elemental protection, then it unleashes Power Press. Once it begins a new loop, it then moves to one of the following patterns: For step 3 of Pattern B, Sealing Flame is rarely used without provocation, but will be triggered if protection against Volt is detected. If protection against fire is detected, Jormungandr uses Clean Sweep instead. If protection against both volt and fire are detected, it will use Power Press. Otherwise, it is inclined to use Quaking Thunder. On step 4, it will only try to cast Sealing Flame if it hasn't used that skill during that loop, and rarely at that. If it picks up both fire and volt protection it instead uses Power Press. Otherwise, it picks randomly between its lesser physical skills or Hateful Glare. Skills *'Quaking Thunder' (Uses Head): Ranged volt attack to the entire party. Greatly lowers their ATK for three turns. *'Megalodive' (Uses Legs): Fast line-piercing bash attack, may stun. *'Clean Sweep' (Uses Arms): Strong melee cut attack to 1 ally line. *'Power Press' (Uses Legs): Melee bash attack to the entire party, may paralyze. *'Sealing Flame' (Uses Head): 4-6 random ranged fire attacks across the entire party, may bind head/arms/legs. Fast act speed. *'Hateful Glare' (Uses Head): Lowers the party's healing received for 3 turns, and may petrify them. Causes Jormungandr to writhe around and show its tail. *'Pentacle Strike' (Uses Legs): Powerful melee bash attack to the entire party. Used only when its tail is showing. Causes Jormungandr to writhe back. Drops *'Gaia Wing' (Worth 100,000en) The Gaia Wing unlocks the Terminus Boots (28 DEF, 28 MDF, Fire/Ice/Volt Resist ↑). As Jormungandr doesn't respawn until the end of the postgame, the player can only obtain one set of these boots until they beat Jormungandr at its strongest. Trivia * Jormungandr is the first final boss in the entire Etrian Odyssey series to have two different Monster Codex entries- one for the final boss fight, and one for the post-game final battle. ** He is also the first final boss to have an option to fight the weaker variant after defeating the post-game version. Category:Etrian Odyssey Nexus Characters Category:Etrian Odyssey Nexus Monsters Category:Etrian Odyssey Nexus Bosses